The Ice Fortress
by x Varda x
Summary: A continuation on from the balcony scene at the end of ‘Enemy at the Gate.’ Atlantis’ return to Earth activates something long dormant and opens the door. Rodney and John friendship with a bit of Teyla, Jennifer and Jeannie.


**Title:** The Ice Fortress  
**Author:** x Varda x  
**Rating:** PG  
**Warnings:** None  
**Word Count:** 6,000  
**Synopsis:** A continuation on from the balcony scene at the end of 'Enemy at the Gate.' Atlantis' return to Earth activates something long dormant and opens the door. Rodney and John friendship with a bit of Teyla, Jennifer and Jeannie.  
**Genre:** Hurt/comfort/angst (Rodney), action/adventure.  
**Disclaimer:** Stargate and Stargate: Atlantis are the property of MGM. All characters remain the property of the original copyright holder. No infringement is intended.

**A/N:** Written for a prompt challenge over on the Unscheduled Offworld Activation (sg_fic_uoa) Community on LiveJournal.

_**The Ice Fortress**_

The breeze from the ocean rose up and washed over the group standing on the balcony. There was a hint of exhaust fumes in amongst the salty tang which made Rodney wrinkle his nose slightly where he stood pressed side to side with Jennifer.

Everyone silently watched, glad to be alive and together on a planet still untouched by the Wraith. It had been _so_ close.

Rodney's radio suddenly activated, tearing him from the tranquillity and peace he felt as he looked out across the bay. _"Zelenka to McKay."_

He sighed and unwrapped his arm from Jennifer's shoulders. She turned to him and opened her mouth to ask. Rodney gave her a long suffering look and made a show of moving his arm up and tapping his radio. "What is it?"

"_It's probably nothing, but we have detected a power reading."_

Rodney huffed and turned away from the balcony to talk into his radio. The others turned to look at him curiously as he spoke. "What did you expect? We're not on some uninhabited water droplet in the Pegasus anymore. This is Earth, Zelenka. There are strange and farfetched things all around us. Like cars and phones and kids with battery operated dogs."

"_I know,"_ he replied evenly. _"But this is different. It is coming from Antarctica; close to where the base was."_

Rodney's eyebrows shot up as high as they could go and his heart rate increased in excitement. He straightened and turned around to look at the curious faces peering at him as he said, "Really? Is it something new? A ZedPM perhaps?"

"_I do not know. That is why I called you to come and have a look at it too."_

Rodney bounced on his heels enthusiastically, hurriedly excused himself and fast walked to the nearest transporter.

The ZPMs they had obtained from Todd had hardly any power left after the rapid trip back to Earth. Combined with the battle, entry through Earth's atmosphere and landing, they only had enough for the cloak to operate. Without any ZPMs they could potentially get stuck on Earth forever. Even a partially depleted one would be taxed to its limit to get them back to the Pegasus Galaxy.

Not that anyone was talking about that yet. They were still holding themselves in a perpetual state of relief like a long exhale after their latest near miss with the Wraith.

The city was heavily damaged and it would be weeks, if not months to fix the city to fly again, even with all the available techs and repair crews on the whole planet that had the appropriate clearance. Setting it to drift along the ocean and take in the sights was one thing, but lifting up and leaving the pull of gravity behind was something else.

------------------------------

"We're approaching the co-ordinates," Sheppard announced.

Rodney shifted in the co-pilot's seat next to him and ground out, "Couldn't the SGC send another team?"

"You know they tried," John answered as he tapped some of the controls and piloted the Jumper towards the endless expanse of white filling the windscreen. "But nothing they sent could get close enough. Like the Ancients don't want anyone here but themselves."

Rodney continued complaining anyway; "We're supposed to be on vacation after saving Earth. I was going to take Jennifer and visit my sister. Then we've got a lot of work to do to repair the city."

"You can see her later; this shouldn't take more than a few hours. We don't know what this is. It could be important or even dangerous."

"Or it could be a ZedPM, but after all this time, it's doubtful." Rodney narrowed his eyes at the bright sunlit snow out of the window and then went back to typing.

Teyla looked on from the seat behind John's. Ronon had not yet been signed off by Keller to accompany them after his fatal injury and resurrection and there was an empty chair where he usually sat behind Rodney.

Teyla said, "I am looking forward to finally seeing the place where it all started just before you were able to find the lost city of the Ancestors."

Rodney sighed and peered out of the windscreen as Antarctica loomed below. "Well you're out of luck. Because the reading is coming from several miles away from the original base. And anyway, everything that was there has now been taken away for study or use elsewhere. Although some of it's now been destroyed."

He shot Sheppard a sour look and John protested, "Hey! The Wraith blowing up the Chair wasn't my fault! We did the best we could and I did fly a nuke right into the hive afterwards!"

Rodney raised his eyebrows and muttered, "I never said it was your fault."

Teyla sunk down into the chair in disappointment, but then perked up again as she said, "I am still glad to be visiting your homeworld after hearing so much about it."

Rodney frowned and asked incredulously, "You've never been to Earth?"

"Not yet. No."

John turned back to her briefly before returning his attention to the controls. "You did sort of visit Earth once."

"That was a shared hallucination, John. I do not think it counts."

He shrugged, "I suppose not."

John flew the Jumper lower as it approached the mysterious reading.

An alarm suddenly started bleeping and Rodney cried, "We've been caught in an energy field!" He furiously typed on the console.

"I've lost control," John said calmly.

"Working on it," Rodney snapped back.

Teyla frowned as she looked out of the window. "We are not crashing."

Rodney answered quickly, "It's on autopilot. Something's got the Jumper and is guiding it in."

"Control would be nice about now, McKay."

"I know, I know! But short of ripping half the crystals out of the ship, we're just going to have to see where it takes us."

John opened his mouth to tell McKay to start doing it, when the Jumper pitched sharply downwards into a nose dive. All three occupants drew in sharp breaths in shock and Rodney scrunched up his face and braced himself for the crash.

But instead of ploughing into hard-packed ice and being destroyed, a tunnel suddenly opened up before them and the Jumper flew into it completely unscathed.

"Where are we going?" John asked, as the white turned to light blue and then faded to black as they got deeper inside the tunnel underground.

The HUD flashed up in answer to his question and showed the path of the tunnel as it went down into the ground by a mile and along several more until it reached the source of the new energy reading.

Rodney smiled, "Exactly where we want to go."

The Jumper soon entered a larger area and lights outside suddenly came on and illuminated the surrounding ice. The ship slowed and stopped in mid air. It hovered down to the ground and landed in the middle of the area which could only be described as an ice cave.

The engines powered down and Rodney turned to John, "I guess that's our cue to leave and explore." He got up and went into the rear compartment, where lots and lots of cold-weather gear had been loaded onto the Jumper.

John still had the HUD active and called back to Rodney, who had now been joined by Teyla, "I don't think we'll need it. According to this, it's a positively balmy 15 degrees Celsius out there."

Rodney stopped completely still where he had one arm stuffed into a thick parka and furrowed his brow in confusion, "But it's ice! It has to be colder than that or it'll melt. Oh, no! We're going to drown in icy water aren't we?!"

John's eyes scanned the readings. "No. According to this, there's a containment field in place, holding back and insulating the ice from this area."

Teyla already had a coat on, but she had opted for one of the thinner fleeces after John's announcement. She said, "Has the field been active for the whole time since Atlantis left Earth?"

Rodney had also swapped his parka for a fleece. It was an orange fleece, similar to the one he once wore in this region of Earth five years ago. He put his tac vest on over the top of the jacket.

John turned and looked at Rodney and struggled to resist the urge to ask who authorised the inclusion of radioactive carrot fleeces on this mission. He indicated the offending article and said, "I thought you were allergic to citrus, McKay. Aren't oranges citrus?"

Rodney frowned and lifted his chin, "I like it actually. It's nice and warm and bright, unlike you and ninja girl there."

Teyla rolled her eyes and studied the overhanging rack intensely.

Rodney whipped out his tablet and ran come scans. "According to this, it's only been active for a few hours. In fact, it seems that it turned on the moment Atlantis reached Earth. I suppose the proximity of the city activated something and thawed out this area before sending out the energy signal so that we could read it."

John shut down the HUD and came into the rear compartment with his teammates. He grabbed a black fleece to match Teyla's and pulled it on. He squeezed himself into the tac vest and clipped a P90 to it.

Rodney rolled his eyes at the gun. "Oh, please! It's been millions of years, Sheppard. I don't think there's anything dangerous or alive down here."

"Can't be too careful," John said as he clipped on a thigh holder and secured a sidearm inside.

Teyla raised her eyebrows and geared herself up in a similar fashion. She retrieved another holster and gun and pressed them into Rodney's hands.

John smirked while Rodney huffed and put them on. John said, "I know we can see you from a mile away, even in the dark. But it's still safer."

A couple of minutes later, they exited the Jumper. The air was chilled, but breathable, and the lights were almost as bright as day, even though they were far underground.

The cave was about the same size as the Jumper Bay back on Atlantis, but entirely made of ice. At one end there was a square of metal in the wall and Rodney went straight towards it, now holding the smaller hand scanner out in front of himself.

"Is that a door?" John asked.

"Free ice cream for Colonel Obvious over there," Rodney muttered as he concentrated on the tiny screen.

"What is behind it?" Teyla asked as she peered intensely at the smooth metal they approached.

"I don't know. The scanner can't penetrate the metal or the ice surrounding us."

John stepped ahead of Rodney and pushed him back. Rodney huffed in annoyance and glared at the back of John's head, but stayed where he had been put.

"Abandon hope all ye who enter here?" John suggested as he glanced at some writing on the door.

Rodney looked up and squinted at the strangely shaped letters. "I don't think so. It's a very old version of Ancient. It says something along the lines of, 'Children of the Ancients only. Keep out!'"

"I'm okay then. What about you? Do you think your artificial gene could fool it?"

"We have to figure out a way of opening it first."

John ran his hand down the front of the door experimentally. There was a series of clicks and the metal suddenly glowed bright blue and a seam appeared in the middle. The two edges split and opened, revealing…

"Nothing!" Rodney cried into the tiny alcove of ice beyond. He turned to Sheppard who was looking sheepish, and said, "Haven't I ever told you about not touching things! Your super gene will get us all killed one day. What if it had been a weapon's launcher or a room full of drones not too happy about being woken up after all this time!?"

"Relax, McKay. There's nothing there. What were you going to do anyway? Wait for the ghosts of the Ancients to appear and tell us we can go in now."

"No. Well, just… just… don't do it again, okay?" he finished lamely.

"Sure, sure," John mumbled as he walked up to the new alcove.

"Is it safe?" Teyla asked as she stood behind the others and kept her eyes on the whole cave to make sure nothing sneaked up on them while John and Rodney were distracted by the alcove.

Rodney frowned angrily and shook the scanner. "I can't tell. This thing's still not giving me any information and is about as useful as Sheppard's sunglasses down here."

John shook his head and stepped into the alcove. Rodney cried, "No!" But it was too late.

The metal door slid shut, glowed brightly, and then opened again to reveal the alcove. But it was empty.

Rodney stood open mouthed, staring wide eyed at the place where John had been.

Teyla was also looking shocked. She tapped her radio, "Teyla to Colonel Sheppard."

"_Teyla! This is Sheppard."_

Rodney shoulders relaxed in relief and he realised how stupid he looked so closed his mouth and stared at the scanner, "That was a crazy thing to do, Sheppard! In fact I think that ranks as one of the most insane things you've _ever_ done. Is there a certain number of crazy stunts you have to perform before you get promoted? Or is it more of a; 'whoever can survive the most,' type ranking system?"

"It worked didn't it, McKay? How else were we supposed to find out what it was?"

Rodney tapped on the scanner and then looked upwards in exasperation, "Perhaps if you had given me five more seconds, I would've been able to _tell_ you it was a transporter, which is what I can see on the scanner now!"

John ignored his comment and said, "You have to get in here. It's amazing!"

Rodney stepped forwards, "Alright. Just don't touch anything."

"I know, relax, Rodney," John said with amusement in his voice.

"_Any_thing!"

"Alright," came the drawled response.

Rodney tucked the scanner into his pocket and held his breath as he stepped into the alcove. The door slammed shut behind him and he was bathed in bright blue light. He shut his eyes, but he could still see the light punching its way through his eyelids and trying to blind him.

He was still like it a few seconds later and his heart started pounding against his ribs in panic. It hadn't taken this long for Sheppard to be transported! What was going on!?

The light suddenly went out and Rodney was forcibly expelled from the alcove. It was like a hand had just swept along and whacked him in the back. He flew out and landed heavily on the floor with a grunt.

A firm grip helped him to sit up and he rubbed his sore arm and chest where he had hit them.

"You alright?" John asked as he pulled Rodney to his feet without waiting for an answer.

Rodney kept his eyes closed until the pain faded away. He mumbled, "I don't think so. Did it do that to you too?"

"No."

Rodney opened his eyes and saw John's concerned face for a fraction of a second before his gaze was torn away by the sight before him and he gasped.

"All the things the Ancient's had to leave behind when they fled Earth? All in one room!"

John nodded and tapped his radio, "Are you joining us, Teyla?"

"I am sorry, Colonel. It will not let me follow you. I believe it will only allow those who have to gene of the Ancestors to enter."

Rodney had forgotten his bruises over his awe of the sight before him and John said, "That would explain why Rodney was given a hard time. It must've been confused by his dodgy gene."

Rodney frowned in anger, "It's not 'dodgy!' My genes are perfectly fine, thanks."

"This place doesn't seem to think so, if that entrance was anything to go by."

Rodney was completely dazzled and stood staring at the rows upon rows of Ancient devices and doodads. There were statues and stained glass, power crystal and consoles; round things, square things, things with thousands of wires hanging out of them; glowing objects and dull objects; tables and shelves up to the high ceiling with yet more things on every shelf.

Rodney's mouth opened and closed a few times as he wordlessly tried to show his surprise and amazement.

"I know how you feel, buddy," John said. He was equally impressed, but perhaps Rodney knew what some of the things were already.

Rodney turned to John and still hadn't blinked and his eyes were watering. "This… this… we could spend weeks… _months_ here!"

"Something to do while the repairs crews fix Atlantis?"

"Yes… no... well, _maybe_."

"Love your quick decision making there, Rodney."

McKay gave him a put out look and said, "I was going to supervise the repairs to Atlantis. Just to make sure no idiots do anything that makes the city explode in an impressive, but fatal, firework display the moment it lifts off."

"Fair enough, but this place does look important and you can check Atlantis over before we go. That's if Woolsey can convince them that we need to go back."

"Yes. I'm not sure about that yet either," Rodney admitted. "Now that we're on Earth, I really can't see the IOA or even the SGC allowing us to return to the Pegasus."

John nodded, "But what about Teyla and Ronon? In fact, what about _all_ the people in the Pegasus. We took the city from them and we still have a duty to protect them from the Wraith and who know whatever else is out there."

"But will that be enough for us to be able to go back?"

John shrugged, "Well, we'll find out eventually." He waved around the room, "Anyway, look! Shiny things, trinkets, toys…"

Rodney glanced up and smiled in delight. He suddenly beamed as his eye was caught by a glowing object right in the centre of the room. An _orange_ glowing object.

"Is that…?" he whispered harshly, before he ran towards it. His feet slid a little on the cold floor, but he stayed upright as he was guided by his lust and greed.

"McKay, slow it down! There could be traps or anything here."

Unfortunately, John was right. There was a deep rumble and the ground shifted sharply to one side. John spread his feet to keep standing, but Rodney was moving and he was shunted to one side into a shelf of devices. He lost his breath as his side hit the shelf, but he quickly pushed himself back up and made for the ZPM again.

"McKay! Get back here, now!" John shouted in exasperation. "This place really doesn't like your ATA gene! It'll come down on us. It's usually you complaining about _my_ overactive gene, McKay. You cheating to get an illegal one has never made anything react to you like this before! Why now?"

John's radio activated, "Teyla… no I don't know. Rodney's done something. Stay put for now. Sheppard out."

John sighed and made his way more carefully to where Rodney had now reached the ZPM and was trying to pry it out of the housing where it was secured. The ground had settled after the initial push, but John kept alert for anything else which might happen.

There was a trickle of blood running down the side of Rodney's face from a wound in his hair where he had hit to his head on the shelf and he had a hand curled around his side. Although he didn't seem to realise he was hurt in his excitement. He turned to John and said, "There's so much here! I could stay here forever!"

John frowned and pointed at Rodney's head, "You're bleeding."

Rodney's face fell an almost imperceptibly small amount and he dabbed his free hand into his hair and winced. He rubbed the offending blood now splattering his palm against his trousers and shrugged nonchalantly before he resumed poking at the ZPM and trying to remove it.

John grabbed Rodney's shoulders to try and move him away, but the man planted his feet and wouldn't shift at all. Rodney grimaced and cried, "What're you doing! ZedPM!"

"No, Rodney. You're hurt. We can come back and get it later with a full team. This facility's not secure yet. The whole place could be lost if you remove it."

Rodney furrowed his brow and rubbed his face again as the blood on his cheek tickled. He smeared it all over his skin and sighed angrily, "But, Sheppard, it's a ZedPM! You know; what we're always searching for! Right here on Earth and everything; under our noses all along." Rodney lowered his hand to his side again and held himself.

"Yes, but it's probably powering the place and keeping us from being turned into ice cream by the flooding water and freezing temperatures."

Rodney lifted his hand away from his flank and held on tightly to the console in front of himself. He leaned most of his weight against it as he sighed sadly. "But if we have a ZedPM then the IOA and SGC won't be able to find any reason to keep us here on Earth. We _have_ to have it."

John frowned in confusion. "What's wrong with you, Rodney? Why do you want to get back to the Pegasus so badly?

Rodney closed his eyes tightly and said softly, "Because if we don't, they'll find a way to split us up."

"What?!" John asked in shock. But in truth, he hadn't really thought about it since they returned.

Rodney looked up from the glowing orange power cell in front of him and turned to John with his eyes so full of sorrow and regret that John physically staggered back a little from the intense look.

Rodney said, "They'll send you to the SGC to go offworld for them instead. Ronon and Teyla will be sent packing back to the Pegasus. Jennifer will probably be assigned to some swanky hospital somewhere. And while the SGC has their own scientists crawling all over and tearing Atlantis apart, I'll be sent off to Area 51…" he shuddered. "…or Siberia, again."

"Oh," was all John could come back with.

"Is that an: 'Oh, yes you're right.' Or more of an: 'Oh, you need your head checked out, McKay?'" Rodney asked.

John smirked, "More on the lines of: I didn't realise you'd given it so much thought."

Rodney laughed bitterly and indicated his blood streaked face as more oozed out of the head wound and ran down his skin. "Sizable brain, Sheppard. I can't help thinking about things all the time."

"Well, we're not there yet. So you don't have to think about it."

Rodney sighed and waved his hand at the room around them, "So, what will his Highness, the Colonel, allow me to do in here if I can't have the ZedPM?"

John followed his gaze and shrugged, "Take a few pictures and scans and then we'll come back later with a proper team."

Rodney looked at the ZPM wistfully and then moved his scanner around himself. He placed his hand against his side once more, but batted Sheppard's hands away when he tried to bandage the head wound.

John said, "Suit yourself, but I think I need to point out that you're getting blood all over that orange fleece you like. Carrots was one thing, but I don't want to have to protect a tomato."

Rodney glanced down at himself and very reluctantly stood still while Sheppard wound some gauze around his head and swabbed the worst of the blood off his face.

Rodney huffed when he finished and ground out, "Happy now?"

"No." John pointed to the ever present hand Rodney had clamped against himself and asked, "What happened there? I saw you take quite a whack."

"Nothing. It's nothing. Just a bruise, I think."

John shrugged, "Alright, but tell me if it gets any worse."

"And you'll do what? Prod it to see how much it hurts?"

"No, we'll head straight back."

"Oh, okay," Rodney said in defeat. "Well, I think I'm done anyway, if all I'm allowed to do is look and not touch, which is more than you ever do, Sheppard. It's a good thing I don't look to you to set an example."

"Thanks, McKay."

Rodney stepped towards the alcove transporter, but suddenly a crate of objects caught his eye. They were all small enough to fit into the palm of his hand and his eyes widened. "Personal shields! An entire crate of them!"

Before Sheppard could stop him, he reached out and picked one up. It glowed green in his hand briefly and then faded out. He huffed, "Well, that's useless! But there's a whole load of them."

The ground suddenly lurched again. But instead of two shakes and then a stop, it kept going. Sheppard shouted, "Haven't you seen Aladdin, McKay? 'Touch nothing but the lamp!' We're leaving! Now!"

Shelves started to buckle and priceless Ancient artefacts fell from the tops and shattered on the icy floor, never to be known what they were or how they could've helped mankind.

Rodney cried in desperation, "No! I need more time!"

"We don't have any. Unless you want to die here surrounded by all this old junk?"

"Junk! But, ZedPMs aren't junk!"

"But this can't be anything more than a room full of trinkets and rubbish the Ancient's didn't need!"

John grabbed Rodney's shoulders and shouted above the smashing noises, "I know you'd do anything not to go back there, but if you kill yourself, you won't be going anywhere!"

Rodney used a strength which caught John by surprise to wriggle free and ran back to the ZPM. He dodged falling objects gracefully for a few seconds, but one then landed on his head and he staggered in a daze. John couldn't get to him and watched helplessly as another large thing, which looked like a golden toaster, landed hard on Rodney's back and sent him stumbling forwards into the console housing the ZPM.

The sound of the shifting earth and falling objects was deafening and John couldn't call out to Rodney and yell at him to get his ass back there or so help him, he'd be spending the next week on a leash with a military escort everywhere… even to the bathroom.

Rodney's hands flew across the console and the ZPM popped loose. Rodney grabbed it and the lights immediately dimmed to show that they were on an emergency backup power supply. But the shaking didn't stop.

There were a loud crashes and an ominous creaking and dripping sound of water in the darkness. John clicked the light on his P90 and tracked it around the dully lit room. He had been right about the ZPM providing power, but whatever Rodney had started by trying to take one of the artefacts couldn't be stopped.

He shouted, "Rodney!?" But there was no reply.

He spotted a flash of orange as he swept his torch around. It was Rodney's arm where he had been buried under smashed artefacts which had fallen on him. More landed in the heap and chunks of ice also joined the metal where the forcefield had gone down and no longer prevented them from being broken off in the earthquake.

He would trade all the crap in the room, even the ZPM, as an offering for a path to Rodney and a way out before the entire place came down and killed them both. If Rodney was already dead then all the possessions in the room and the whole universe would become meaningless and pointless to him forevermore.

He hoped Teyla was alright outside, but she could look after herself and had the Jumper to shelter in if necessary.

John ran over and quickly uncovered Rodney and pressed his fingers into Rodney's neck. A rapid pulse tapped against them and he sighed in relief. Although Rodney was unconscious, he was still hugging the ZPM tightly to his chest with both arms wrapped around it possessively. John shook Rodney to try and rouse him and Rodney's eyes suddenly flew open with a cry of pain.

He stood up with John's help, but no matter how hard he tried Sheppard couldn't pry the ZPM away from him. He kept hold of Rodney's shoulders and guided him unsteadily back to the alcove as the ground bucked and rolled. He had no choice but to step inside with Rodney too and they vanished in a flash of blue light.

Teyla stood waiting for them when they reappeared back in the bay. She looked worried as ice and water fell from the ceiling and started to slosh around her feet in a freezing cold puddle. Together they helped Rodney back to the Jumper and sat him down on the rear bench.

John slammed the door closed and ran into the cockpit while Teyla finally managed to get Rodney to release his hold on the ZPM. "What happened, Rodney?" she asked.

But he merely blinked at her vacantly and the bandage around his head spotted red where he was still bleeding.

"It's not working!" John shouted from the pilot's seat. "The autopilot's still engaged and it won't let me start the engines."

Rodney pushed himself upright with Teyla's help. He didn't say anything at all, which in itself was very troubling. Teyla frowned as he swayed and whimpered before reaching up and pulling the crystal tray down.

He started to seemingly randomly tug out the crystals and throw them to the floor where some of them shattered. Teyla watched in horror and asked, "What are you doing? Do we not need those in order to fly?"

Rodney shook his head tiredly as he pulled out a handful of wires and glowing crystals and then sunk down to the bench.

John announced, "I have power. Let's get out of here."

The windscreen was filled with darkness as he flew the Jumper through the tunnel away from the collapsing and melting place which had nearly become their icy tomb.

Rodney closed his eyes and slithered out of the seat and to the floor in a heap. Teyla attacked his tac vest and fleece and soon had them undone so that he could breathe more easily. She examined him while she was there and baulked at the bruises all over his body; some were very dark and maybe even hid broken bones underneath.

"Rodney is hurt," she called out to John. "We must get back as quickly as possible."

John pushed the Jumper harder while Teyla stayed with Rodney and whispered into his ear, "We have the ZPM, but you do not have to die for it."

----------------

Rodney woke up to the sound of hushed voices and beeping. Both were soon drowned out by the sensation of his heart pounding in his chest and his body vibrating in the pain it caused. He couldn't feel any bandages, but he was incredibly sore all over, like he had been trampled and beaten to a pulp by a herd of giant rolling ZPMs. Clearly some medical quack was trying to overdose him on too many painkilling drugs if he was thinking like that.

The unpleasantness soon faded and the hushed voices returned. He recognised them as female voices in the haze of drug fuelled numbness. Both were familiar, one he realised was Jennifer's and the other… _Jeannie?_

But he must still be on Atlantis as he was hurt and in the infirmary, so how come she was there with him?

His eyes flew open and he sat upright, ignoring the flare of burningly bright agony from multiple points inside him and in his head. He cried, "Oh no! I'm dying again, aren't I?"

Jeannie was sitting next to him with Jennifer standing over her. She looked at Rodney and said, "I hope not, Meredith!"

Rodney huffed and shuddered as water was involuntarily forced from his eyes as he struggled to breathe in the new position. Jennifer grabbed him before he fell back and gently lowered him down. Memories suddenly assaulted him; brought forth by the sharpness of the pain throughout his body while it held him at its mercy. "We're on Earth?"

Jennifer frowned at him like he was being silly. "Yes. What else do you remember?"

Rodney frowned, "Falling things hitting me. Being buried… uhm… ZedPM!"

"Yes, you got it, but nearly killed yourself in the process." Jennifer grabbed the clipboard at the end of his bed and flicked through the pages with a look of concentration mingled with anger. She said, "Broken ribs, internal bleeding, concussion, sprains, bruising… need I go on?"

Rodney shrunk down like he wanted the bed to swallow him as she directed her furious glare his way. He gritted his teeth and said in a small voice, "No thanks."

"Not enough to require surgery, but enough combined with your other injuries that you nearly died."

Rodney turned away and said quietly, "I just don't want to go back to Siberia and lose everyone."

Jennifer softened her voice as she said, "No one said anything about anyone going anywhere." She laid a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "Try not to worry about it."

Jeannie looked between them with her brow furrowed in worry and quickly changed the subject. "Dr Keller's been telling me about you, Mer."

Rodney frowned and looked at his sister before returning his gaze to Jennifer, _"Really?"_

"Yes, about your little trip to the desert and what's happened since."

The corners of Jennifer's lips curled into a small indulgent smile.

"It's nice that you two are together," Jeannie grinned at them sincerely. "I'm happy for you."

Rodney glared at Jennifer and spluttered, "How could you!? While I was unconscious too!"

Jennifer shrugged, "She was going to find out sooner or later. Anyway, try to get some rest or you might pull something else."

Rodney watched her as she left and Jeannie looked at him in worry before she said, "Be careful with her."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Jeannie merely looked at him knowingly and Rodney sighed with a wince. "Ow ow ow! But at least I got the ZedPM, right?"

Jeannie smiled and adjusted the covers over him to smooth them out unnecessarily. "And you saved Earth."

John came in a while later and took a seat beside Jeannie.

Rodney asked, "So?"

John frowned. "What?"

Rodney rolled his eyes, "The ZedPM?"

"Zelenka says it's fully charged and could get us back to the Pegasus."

Rodney beamed, "Then why are we still on Earth?"

John sighed and Jeannie looked away. "Woolsey's still in negotiations with the SGC and IOA. I'm going over there later with Ronon, Teyla and a few other people."

Rodney deflated sadly and felt tiredness creeping back up on him after the initial burst of adrenaline wore off and his injuries exhausted him.

John said, "We just simply don't know yet whether we're going back or not."

Rodney closed his eyes to hide as he felt them welling up. A hand enclosed his and squeezed gently. Jeannie said, "It's okay, Mer. John said there's a team digging out that base you found. That should give you plenty to think about while you get better."

She was just being nice. Trying not to make him lose hope while he was ill and convince him that they would stay together and everything would go back to how it always used to be.

"When you're better we can all go to the SGC if they're still not convinced. I'm pretty sure you could fast-talk them with a million reasons why we have to go back."

Rodney floated away to the sound of John and Jeannie's voices. No-one knew what was going to happen yet, but they _had_ to go back. They just had to! He wasn't going to let them all be split up or it would make him how he always used to be. And he had no desire to turn back into that kind of man.

-------------------------

**A/N:** _I used both prompts for this. They were a picture of the final balcony scene at the end of Enemy at the Gate and the sentence 'All my possessions for a moment of time.' --Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603). This could also be Season 6 episode 1, but you know if I went that way (attempting to write a continuation style series) that they'd all be Rodney centric whump stories... right? :P_


End file.
